David Thompson

Smashwords book reviews by David Thompson

  • Slave Empire - The Crystal Ship on Sep. 12, 2011

    I enjoyed this as well as the first book. Minor grammatical errors slightly annoying.
  • Slave Empire III - The Shrike on Sep. 12, 2011

    Bit of a let down for me, more like mills and boon than SciFi. Irritating repetative theme of "Stupid emotional girl gets in a huff and storms of to do her own thing" then gets kidnapped (yet again) and as to be rescued (yet again) at great cost and loss of life. Would have been better for all concerned if Rayne had been left in the Crystal Ship at the end of book 2!
  • Combined Edition: The Awakened Books One Through Three on Sep. 19, 2011
    (no rating)
    This is books 1-3 The Awakened. The story line is brilliant! I had no idea what the ending would be right up until Kael turns into a Dragon (just kidding he doesn't);-) A few grammatical errors. I notice the frequent lack (of) use of the prepositon "of". Not just in this book either. Is this acceptable modern English of is it just me? So once again an excellent suspense filled fantasy novel. I look forward to the next episodes.
  • 80AD - The Jewel of Asgard (Book 1) on Jan. 04, 2012

    Although this book is rated as young Adult/teen and I am short of teen by at least 45 years the description seemed to be the sort of thing I like to read (Scifi/Fantasy) so I gave it a go. Well I thought it was excellent reading and I am looking forward to the rest of the series. So maybe the category should include "old youngsters"
  • Minerva's Soul on July 05, 2012

    Excellent! Unlike some trilogies I've read, this one does not run out of steam in the final book. Kept my interest right up to the end. Pity it has to be a Trilogy I could have read more!
  • Combined Edition: The Awakened Books One Through Three on Aug. 04, 2012

    Excellent reading. Unusual storyline but as true to fantasy as can be! Hoping there will be a sequel.
  • The Academy on Aug. 04, 2012

    It's a while since I read book one of this series and it didn't refresh my memory (which is normally pretty good with books). As is mentioned below that's because it is set some time after. Once I got going I found it very readable and because of the July discount I had taken a chance and bought book three also. At the end I was pleased that I had and was looking forward to reading that too.
  • Rise of Shadows on Aug. 04, 2012

    I was not disappointed by the 3rd book in the series, very readable and interesting storyline.
  • Providence on Aug. 04, 2012

    I found the free book one very enjoyable and had to find out what happened in book two. I was not let down and found this just as interesting. Splendid stuff.
  • Legends of Origin 2 - Orion's Harvesters on Aug. 04, 2012

    Being tight I usually wait until I've read a free book which I enjoy before I buy book(s) 2/3 and I don't usualy spend more than $3 per book. Because of Smashwords July discount and the fact that I had read and enjoyed other books from this author I downloaded the free and paid books (1 & 2). I was not disappointed. Hopefully there will be a book 3. Good storyline although I'm now a bit concerned about Dec 2012. Should I set up my telescope or hide?
  • Shen on Aug. 13, 2012

    I found this very enjoyable and hope there is more to come.
  • Deep Crossing on Aug. 13, 2012

    Excellent follow on to Fatal Boarding. Hope there is more to come.
  • Ghostwalker (The Chronicles of Zanthora: Book One) on Aug. 29, 2013

    I enjoyed the story and I also enjoyed the fact that there were very few typos. The ones I spotted were also very minor. Ending was a bit sudden but there is more to come. Keep up the good work.
  • Nomads of the Gods on May 19, 2014

    I volunteered to proof read this book, looking only for spelling mistakes and incorrect word use and really bad grammatical errors. I decided that grammar and style was too big a commitment. I finished about Dec 2013. I am mystified about post 2014 comments about spelling, I have rechecked and found at most 6 spelling mistakes! Did the reviewers mean wrong word use? There is a difference. One review refers to the Gor series. I read book 1 and apart from the location Gor/Gorn, the restricted use of technology and domesticated prehistoric creatures, the books are totally different. The Gor book is written entirely in the 1st person while this book is multiple 3rd person viewpoints. How can you judge a 500ish page book by the first 38 pages? If you want improvements, try to be specific! My own review, I am a Sci-fi / fantasty fan. Prior to 2014, spelling, word use and grammar was to me a major distraction. However I thought the storyline was very good. That's why I volunteered to proof read it, but only for spelling and misuse of words. After 2014 spelling and misuse of words should be minimal. Grammar is another issue. I have spent a lot of time proofing Book 2, it's taken about 5 months. This time grammar, word logic, spelling and word use were edited. So subject to the Author's acceptance, this revision of Book 2 could be available soon. Feedback welcome, but please try be specific. I've given NOTG 4 Stars reflecting an excellent story, grammar and word logic, needs work for the extra star.
  • Nomads the Fallen God on May 30, 2014

    Reading the review by Mark Schultz, I'm hoping he read the version of TFG before it was proof read and edited by myself, uploaded late May. The revised version may still have mistakes, I'm not perfect. As with NOTG I volunteered to do this because I thought the story was extremely good and deserved a good proofing. Not having read TFG, I was able to enjoy the read while proofing/editing. Pity there's no way of contacting Smashwords' members for additional info. I found the storyline to be first class with some unexpected outcomes.
  • The Lord of the Plains on Aug. 16, 2015

    I found this interestingly different with unexpected events and it was very well written.
  • The Broken Kingdom on Aug. 17, 2015

    The writing style was still good but I got the feeling that the author was getting a little tired with the plot. Certain fairly important events are IMO glossed over. I was a bit disappointed to find the main character had turned into a Politically Correct American adolescent. Surely in a multi species fantasy the author can manage better than "Excuse me!" to indicate indignant surprise, plus a few more in the same vein and "We're not Gemengs we're Mixed". Oh come on! Convincing the followers of 2 of the main characters adversaries to change their allegiance was fairly critical to the final outcome, but how it was achieved was given very little explanation, I would have liked a bit more, Book 1 covered everything much more thoroughly so it is definitely within the author's ability.
  • IceFlight on Oct. 15, 2015

    Very enjoyable and novel storyline. Pity Frostbite (book 2) only seems to be available for Kindle.
  • The Canavars (A Post Apocalyptic Zombie Tale) on May 26, 2020

    The basic story line is quite good and engaging (even though some characters are a bit iritating) but I eventually gave up because of: The occasional weird misuse of words e.g. "her arid lips." Unless she has a desert on her lips, "arid" is not the correct word! If in doubt look it up, with the availability of the Internet it takes only seconds to check. To me, "arid lips" didn't sound right so I looked it up and guess what! Wandering between tenses/cases in the same sentence. This isn't "individual style" it's just bad use of words and can be quite confusing. Constant use of apparently favourite words. Moaning, Groaning and Snickering. Before she is "bumped off" Imelda is a "Moaning Minnie". If you don't believe me, check how often she "moaned". No doubt she learned from Simon who also does a lot of moaning. A number of strange expressions; "He stepped out and created a thin smile as his feet trudged their way over." A conjurer controlled by his feet? To me this seems like using words for the sake of it. How about; "He stepped out and trudging over forced a thin smile." ? Or just "Simon trudged over forcing a thin smile." I've never heard of anything but feet trudging. A bit of space filling, "with trainers on his feet". Where else would they be? How about "wearing trainers"? Overall the grammar is quite good, I didn't notice any spelling mistakes so maybe there aren't any! That would be pretty miraculous too :-) I know that criticism even when positive can hurt and that it can be quite (or even very) difficult to change the way that you write things. It is easy to ignore but then you will never develop a goood writing style. Think about how you wrote at age 12 and how you write now. What caused the change? Words are tools and to use them effectively you need to know how they work. So now that I've given you a good going over ;-) I hope you will see these comments as positive feedback that you can use to improve your writing rather than thinking "I've already written X books, so why should I bother to change? Well anyone can self publish and books be downloaded especially when they are free. I've seen some pretty awful books on Smashwords. Some authors think that using "text speak, awful spelling and grammar" is OK because most people can understand it. They might understand it, but I'll bet they don't enjoy it. The concept of proof reading seems quite novel to some of them too (no pun intended). They seem to think "It's finished, nothing else to do. I have done some proof reading and even at the 3rd reading still found things I'd missed previously. I also discovered you can't effectively proof read your own work. In case you are wondering "who the hell are you to say all this?" I've never written a novel but I was a technical author and trainer until retirement and I've always loved words. I was not born with the ability to be a technical author I had to learn and after a life time practicing I'm still far from perfect! I've always been technical but putting techicality into words is a whole new skill set in the same way as it is as it is for novels. "Great idea for a novel but how to convert it into words?". Well you already know that, write something, anything, you can always (must) go back over it later. So good luck with any future novels. David T
  • Qualify on Aug. 13, 2021

    As others have said this is a bit Hunger Gamesy but I found it very engaging and I could hardly wait to find out what happened next. I found the writing style to be very good, I cringe at the grammar and spelling mistakes found in some self published books. Very credit worthy especially when you take into account the authors background. Well done Vera! I'm just about to buy the next installment.